Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Some metal music conjures potent images in the mind's eye of the listener. Most often these images are vague and not directly informed by the lyrical material of the songs they belong to, more abstract dream-like scapes in washes of violent warm colors. I think this happens mostly because for metal bands the riff-writing is a separate art to the writing of lyrics. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of angry rock or metal bands write the music first and it doesn't later change much or at all to contend for the feel and meaning of the lyrics. In fact when we're talking about metal, the writing of riffs (of which there are many) is simply addressed separate from the writing of coherent compositions (of which there are few and far between) but that's a topic for another time.

It is then a small wonder when a HM band that for all intents and purposes writes exactly like this, ends up conjuring very relevant images to the lyrics. Annihilator are such a band.

Music is thus by no means like the other arts, the copy of the Ideas, but the copy of the will itself, whose objectivity these Ideas are. This is why the effect of music is much more powerful and penetrating than that of the other arts, for they speak only of shadows, but it speaks of the thing itself. "Music does not express this or that particular and definite joy, this or that sorrow, or pain, or horror, or delight, or merriment, or peace of mind; but joy, sorrow, pain, horror, delight, merriment, peace of mind themselves, to a certain extent in the abstract, their essential nature, without accessories, and therefore without their motives. Yet we completely understand them in this extracted quintessence. Hence it arises that our imagination is so easily excited by music, and now seeks to give form to that invisible yet actively moved spirit world which speaks to us directly, and to clothe it with flesh and blood, i. e. to embody it in an analogous example. This is the origin of the song with words, and finally of the opera, the text of which should therefore never forsake that subordinate position in order to make itself the chief thing and the music the mere means of expressing it, which is a great misconception and a piece of utter perversity; for music always expresses only the quintessence of life and its events, and never these themselves, and therefore their differences do not always affect it. It is precisely this universality, which belongs exclusively to it, together with the greatest determinateness, [364] that gives music the high worth which it has as the panacea for all our woes. Thus if music is too closely united to words, and tries to form itself according to the events, it is striving to speak a language which is not its own."

This smart man here explains, as I understand it, that the reason music is a universally loved and potent art is in that it doesn't (or shouldn't) seek to describe specific phenomena, but to be describe the archetypal expressions that all particulars spring from. In that sense metal bands might appropriate this definition of 'high music art' and comfortably consider their three chord riff-based abstractions to be a link to the primordial and be done with it. They are often right too. However I believe that Schopenhauer above had a far different standard of composition in mind to which most metal falls startlingly short of, not for their music being too linked to their lyrics to achieve universality, but by not being anything much on every level to begin with.

Secondly I think that abstraction has been hijacked by post-modernists with a consumerist agenda. How often do you hear, when trying to discuss the aesthetics and meanings of music, the offering of "dude, shut up, music is just music, man". I'm not sure Schopenhauer would be particularly proud. His sentiments can and have easily been appropriated by salesmen and vendors who would exclaim that since the music expresses universal emotions, then every one of us should buy all of it. If we look at popular music that is the distillation of abstraction in form and effect we see that it's working. So no offense to this smart man, but let's try to see what slightly different approaches offer us.

Annihilator above were not a band of very lofty ideals really, and the song posted doesn't have a high concept per se; It is in the plentiful abilities of main guitarist and composer, Jeff Waters that the composition of 'Road to Ruin' and indeed of most songs on their first two LPs, had become more involved than an average AC/DC song. He sounds like he has ADD, hyperactive, likes to cram in as many licks as he can but - unlike a lot of technical metal bands - has the good sense to compare what he's adding to what the song is achieving and rarely leaves a phrase in that is at odds. Jeff Waters can do what Annihilator do then because he's both extremely able on his instrument but also because he has the good sense to let the song's voice dictate what he (over)plays where.

In contrast, most metal (and rock) musicians struggle with a limited ability in their lead voice instruments, it is often a climb to express even an abstract concept. Sure, a lot of them play very fast or very precise, but what they play is often very limited and derivative. It might startle some knowledgeable Heavy Metal people to say for example that Autopsy (in the minds of most people a sloppy rude death metal band) are more erudite with their music than Meshuggah (a highly technical post-thrash band). The former simply have a larger musical lexicon. Most bands do not enjoy the mobility that great chops allow for to offer impressions of minutiae however. And those that work hard to get these chops usually masturbate with them predictable scale runs and basic syncopations over and over, impressive to laymen but ultimately one-note.

Not being a virtuoso is a blessing and a curse however. When one has barely 5 riffs in them, they tend to make them count and speak with them of encompassing emotions, namely despair and hope. This is the main characteristic of Heavy Metal really and it also explains why a lot of absolutely incredible bands often had just one great album in them, some even just a few great songs. That said, it's a pleasing variation and I feel, a worthy introduction to outsiders, to consider the minority of more skillful and considerate players that can strike with more precision once in a while.

The lyrics set the stage here:

No control tonight, the lights are going dimThe floor begins to tilt, it's blurring to a spinJust let me find my keys, look down belowFresh air is all I need, then I'll go

Leading up the road to ruinYou're full of alcoholic speedLeading up the road to ruinNo last chance, don't bother to plead

High, over the limit, got to take it slowConcentrate, kill the radioIt's not the first time, it'll be the lastI've said that before, in the past

Speed, I've got to make it home

Not too far to go, you're getting nearJust down the block, there's nothing left to fearCarefree, on top of the world, feeling powerImpaired security at ninety miles an hour

Somebody's driving drunk, it doesn't end well.

The beauty of the thing is how the choices in riffs and voicings by Waters, along with the clean and tight lockstep of the capable rhythm section underline and amplify the sense of barely controlled chaos of the situation. Nearly every section of the song for me augments the picture, it supports an otherwise pretty stereotypical narrative.

Check out the natural harmonics lick at the end of the theme at 00:30 and how even before the plot is introduced a sense of instability and fragmentation hints of it in an otherwise straight ahead speed metal riff. Speed is the thing here but also blurriness, incoherency, confusion. These are the emotional elements that Waters' guitar pyrotechnics are most suited for.

In fact, for the duration of the verse, pay attention to how the regular palm muted riff is commented upon by a variation of different end licks, most of them choppy or syncopated, almost never repeating themselves, offering the listener no sense of security. Have you ever had manic thoughts that seem to dissolve before you're able to make them cohere to a larger structure, only to reappear and taunt you to try again? Have you ever been drunk?

The chorus with it's more austere and controlled rhythmics speaks in the second person. You're leading up the road of ruin, you're full of alcoholic speed. Look how effectively Waters shifts perspectives without any confusion just by musical cues. The unstable chaotic riffery belongs to the protagonist of the tale, the slower and regimented responses belong to a higher authority, a beholder. The listener feels compelled to empathize with both: id and superego together, schizophrenia. This is the overarching theme of Annihilator's early output.

Not to say that the song doesn't default to the familiar trappings of rock music, with its melody, verse, bridge, chorus and repeat. This is because Annihilator did not consider themselves purveyors of modern classical composition or anything, they probably had not heard of Schopenhauer not did enjoy programmatic music. They were writing hooky pop songs, but their inner ambitions overpowered the form. This is the basic definition of Heavy Metal in relation to its bordering musical genres, actually. The positives of the skeletal remnants of the basic pop song composition under this song are that the themes are reaffirmed and the listener is put to a hot-cold alteration between musical coherency and safety and then the wild chromatic deviations of Water that constantly upset. It's a potent dualism that fuels a lot of great Heavy Metal.

Check out the abrupt stop-starts under the first solo voice how they comment on its almost sonorous and hopeful tone (the driver hopes that he's going to make it home) but the second solo comes in mockingly, bending, rolling, laughing with this hope. It is appropriate that the most 'rock and roll' sounding part of the song is the voice of a higher fate, it's as if Annihilator are saying 'you're gonna crash and burn and let the devils dance in the flames'.

After a third chorus, the main riff is punctuated by sharp turns, futile floor breaks and finally the winding guitars signal the inevitable sounds of a crash. Every time I listen to this song I hum for hours after it not just the chorus or some melody but three or four parts in a row. I get hooked on a emotionally involving composition. I really love early Annihilator.

Not every song by them is so rich in imagery but most are. The most enjoyable ones actually are those written to lyrics of mental instability, Annihilator's forte, they let Jeff Waters' guitar go really crazy. Always a light band however, they're an easy way to get new listeners to appreciate Heavy Metal in other ways than just as a primal force that paints bluntly only the basest of scenes, screaming and growling and bludgeoning what is in effect existential ennui.

Monday, February 22, 2010

This page is a comment on how one remembers the past: a play between regimented linearity, like pleasant summer blockbusters, this happened then that, rehearsed and made sense until it's safe. And then trauma like shards of a broken crystal, cruel vantages towards the inside of the wound that may never be contained. Square peg in a punctured heart, it never heals.Read more...

Monday, February 15, 2010

Alright, seeing that there was worship of Heavy Metal as requested, here's more ZX.

Another difficult page that I think turned out alright. I hope the reader realizes it's a flashback through various notable memories of Stephan's life as a child and as a teenager. I hope there's no confusion as to who is who.

The Greek expression is 'Guys are robots and girls are ferryboats' only, it rhymes. I'm very sad I can't use that in English and default to the American jock-idiot talk of 'bros before hos'. In fact if you, the native English speaker, know of an equivalent expression that is more childlike and innocent, do let me know.

For those interested in the formalities of comic making, consider the same page if the panel borders were drawn in, would it be so easy to move from one highlight in time to another, where years have passed between each strip?

Am I ever! As I replied to him the only sad aspect of that is that when he might want to talk with other people of supposed metal tastes and he mentions such names, besides on King Diamond, he's going to get a lot of blank stares. The greatest Heavy Metal is usually the more esoteric type and that's also the least popular.

However, today we are celebrating 40 years of Heavy Metal! Cruel steel that rends pretenders apart and carves from the dull flesh inside a burning heart! A small youtube retrospective is in order, not so much in the esoterica but in the common stem of it all.

It all starts here. The said 40 years ago but was it really? It feels like yesterday when Black Sabbath cut off my head, drained my weak blood and replaced it with the occulted sulfurs that drive me to this day. Let us worship to the altars of the young gods

An ablation of blood to the elder sorcerers, erecting their monument that reaches to the stars

Let us dream inwards, let us live in ingress, stretching our elytrous wingspan until the cosmos seems but a reach away

Let our imagination swell with the only truth that there is no truth, nothing is real and everything is permitted. A theater of shadows dancing around burning fires

And weave a dark reflection on the mountains bare that mean to surround us

Let us rediscover what we have always possessed, a promise of better days

Bow to the kings of yesterday, they have given us wings to fly away. What have the phantom queens but deceived us?Read more...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

This is pixel art. Click here to go to a magical place where if you click on an image it becomes 2x the size and if you hold down the ctrl button and click on it it becomes half the size again so that you may inspect the pixel placements.

If you are interested in this sort of digital art, read the whole thread to get a feel of where the community online is on tool-use and methodology. Even if some things go over your head perhaps you'll be intrgued to know more and then you can browse Pixelation and Pixel Joint in earnest and make up your own mind.

This image was started before I got the impulse to make the ZX comic, so that is more than 9 months ago but I got a final push to finish it yesterday. You see when I did the first 10 hours of work on it I was listening to an excellent audiobook version of the first Elric of Melibone book. I had read this book for the first time back in 1998, when I was thirteen and it had a profound and lasting effect on me. Sadly the audiobook ran out and with it my impulse to finish the above piece.

On a whim I downloaded the second audiobook of the splendid 'Sailor on the Seas of Fate', it is not done as wonderfully as the first one but it did provide an impulse to go back to the old piece and put the final 5 hours in.

It's funny to me how the image looks basically like 'some zombie'. I realized that's how it'd be perceived when I was almost done with it and it kinda annoyed me 'cuz I don't like zombies and I was going for a more occult 'avatar of death' thing but oh well!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Over at Illogical Contraption mr. Shelby Cobras has been kind enough to invite me to write about Greek metal circa 1990-2000 and posted it along a compilation of choice cuts of that period. Go download and listen and read if you're interested in underground Heavy Metal.

I don't write a lot about these things (and certainly not to that degree of detail) over here because the main focus should always be comics and how to live with them but who knows maybe some of you are also metalheads.

Monday, February 1, 2010

I dreaded this page when I started this comic because I thought it'd be more difficult than it was to pull off. Or perhaps I'm just getting better. There's a considerable amount of technique as far as inking as commentary goes here, which reminds me, I need to write a little about inking as commentary at some point, it might help those with analytical concerns 'understand' the comic better.